sábado, 9 de mayo de 2015

Reading test: Google should be allowed in examinations

For this week's reading test we have used the BBC article Google should be allowed in examinations to practise the multiple choice task that tests grammar and vocabulary. Some minor changes have been made to the original text.

Read the text and choose the option A, B or C which best fits in each gap. 0 is an example.

It is inevitable search engines (0) … Google will be allowed in public examinations, including GCSEs and A-Levels, the head of an exam board says.OCR chief Mark Dawe (1) … the Today programme allowing internet use in exam rooms reflected the way pupils learned and how they would work in future. He said students would (2) … need a basis of knowledge and would have limited time to conduct searches.The Campaign for Real Education (3) … the idea as "dumbing down". Mr Dawe said: "Surely when they learn in the classroom, everyone uses Google if there is a question. It is more about understanding what results you're seeing (4) … keeping all of that knowledge in your head, because that's not how the modern world works."He compared the idea to the debate about whether to have books (5) … during a test, saying: "In reality you didn't have too much time [to consult the book] and you had to learn it anyway."Mr Dawe suggested some exams may (6) … to have internet access and others may not. He said: "It's about understanding the tools they have and how to utilise them. When we are (7) … a question where we know there's access to the internet, we could ask a different question - it's about the interpretation, the discussion."On the (8) … of when internet use might be allowed in exams, Mr Dawe said: "It's very (9) … to happen in the next few weeks or next few months, but it's certainly inevitable, I would suggest."Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: "We have a crisis in standards in this country. We are three years (10) … the Chinese, at the age of 15. We have got universities running remedial courses. We have got employers saying (11) … youngsters are unemployable. You can have an exam in how to use Google - that's not the same thing (12) … having a history exam or a geography exam. We do have to test what children are carrying in their heads".